


Tiny Universe

by Ebhenah



Series: Future Klance Family Fics [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Castle of Lions memories, Domestic klance, Doting Dads, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Keith is a dad, Klance future family fic, Lance is a Dad, M/M, Married Life, Sick Fic, Tooth Rotting Fluff, daily life, life on the atlas, love is gross sometimes, parenting, parenting is gross a lot, surro-kids, well-loved kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22359631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ebhenah/pseuds/Ebhenah
Summary: Sometimes, post-war life is very unglamorous... come to think of it, sometimes mid-war life was also pretty unglamorous.Lance reflects on his life and what's really important.
Relationships: Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance & Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Future Klance Family Fics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1265678
Comments: 6
Kudos: 82





	Tiny Universe

Keith got sick once on the Castleship. 

Exactly once, but Lance would never forget it. 

In the early days of his involvement with the Blade of Marmora, he encountered a virus that Galra were susceptible to and it hit him like a brick wall. It had mutated so much since Alfor’s time that the Castle’s pods were useless against it. It wasn’t life threatening or dangerous, just miserable. A week or more of aches and fatigue plus a relentless fever that brought with it vivid, disturbing dreams. 

For the most part, he stuck to his room. Hunk was allowed periodic admittance, and when pressed all he would say is that Keith was pretty miserable. Shiro, on the other hand, was barely allowed to leave. After a few days, Allura put her foot down insisting that while Keith slept, Shiro needed to take a break.

He was sitting in the common room with Lance, the two of them somehow having gotten into a competition to see who could name the most action movies without resorting to including sequels. It was surprisingly fun, which Lance wasn’t sure meant that Shiro was interesting company so much as it meant that he was so desperate for entertainment that listing movies now qualified as a fun activity. 

The door slid open and revealed Keith. His eyes were red and puffy, normally pale skin almost ashen, and despite being wrapped in what looked like ALL of his bedding, he was visibly shivering. “Sh’ro?”

“Ohhhh… Keith, buddy!” Shiro’s voice dripped with compassion and self-recrimination, “you were sleeping… I’m sorry, I should have stayed!”

“S’okay… m’not a baby,” Keith mumbled, staggering shakily to the couch and falling onto it. Within a few minutes, he’d sort of slid down until his head was in Shiro’s lap. Shiro fell into an easy rhythm of stroking his hair back from his face. It reminded Lance of when his nephew had caught the flu as a toddler and refused to be left alone.

“Dreams get to you?” Shiro asked softly and Keith nodded, rubbing at his face. “How can I help?”

“D’stract me? The apricot kid story?”

Shiro laughed softly, “it’s the Peach Boy. You know it’s the Peach Boy, but sure. A long, long time ago, in the countryside of Japan, there lived an old couple. The man and his wife were very lonely and heartbroken, for they had no children to bring joy to their lives. They were well past the age where they would be blessed with a child, and so they tried to make the most of their lives, but their hearts ached for a baby to love. One day, when she was washing clothes, the woman found a huge, perfect peach floating down the river! She gathered it to her and carried it home, intending to feed it to her beloved husband for supper for she’d never seen a peach so large, or so flawless. But, when it came time to cut into the peach, a voice cried out from inside it, warning them to stop. Knife in her hand, they both froze in shock. Just then, the peach split right down the middle and a baby boy burst free. He was perfect in every way, their most cherished wish come to life, and they named him Momotaro, or Peach Boy…”

Shiro continued, spinning the tale of Momotaro’s adventurous life, and Lance was mesmerized. He’d never heard this fairy tale before, but it was obvious that Keith had and Shiro had a knack for telling it. Even after Keith drifted off, Shiro continued to talk and Lance stuck around to hear it. 

When it was done, Shiro told him about how he’d seen Keith sick like this once before. After arriving at the Garrison, but before classes started, it was discovered that Keith wasn’t fully up to date on his inoculations, and needed an aggressive make-up schedule. He’d reacted badly to one of them and ended up in the medward, all alone. Shiro had taken to visiting him and reading to him from the very limited selection of books they had on hand. Once they ran out, he’d started telling Keith the stories he’d grown up with.

It was sweet, and the peek into the friendship of his two notoriously private teammates had always meant a lot to Lance. Which was why, years later, when Keith was feverish and miserable with the flu he’d picked up from their son, Thace, Lance found himself trying to remember all the details to Momotaro’s adventures.

He was overheated, stuck in bed and sandwiched between their toddler and Keith- both of them hot and sticky from fevers, and ridiculously clingy. Lance was simultaneously parched and bursting to take a leak… which, he’d decided, was some kind of cruel joke by the universe at his expense.

There was absolutely no way he was moving just yet though. No way he was disturbing either of them when they were sick and in pain. He’d just have to hold it until the latest dose of medications kicked in and they were able to rest a little easier. 

He couldn’t make them better, even though he’d battle reality itself if he thought it would work… but he could do this. 

He could cradle their little boy to his chest without complaining about bony knees and elbows and while pretending not to notice that their perfect little angel was both snotting and drooling all over him. 

He could let Keith use his thigh as a pillow and stroke his hair, brushing it back from his face in a slow, steady rhythm.

He could rack his own brain for the plot of a fairy tale he’d heard precisely once. Try to replicate the exact phrasing Shiro had used.

Because it comforted the man he loved. Because it kept away bad dreams that were mostly made up of painful memories twisted to cruel extremes.

He could ignore his bladder and his dry throat (and seriously, it should be impossible to suffer both an excess AND a shortage of fluid at the exact same time) to make sure that Keith never felt alone or abandoned.

He could make sure that their little boy never doubted that his fathers would drop anything and everything to take care of him.

He could sit in that bed, way too warm and unpleasantly sweaty, holding his entire universe in his arms. 

Safe and loved and protected.

Because he was a Paladin of Voltron, and they were the Defenders of the Universe.


End file.
